MERTHYR TYDFIL CYNGOR BWRDEISTREF SIROL COUNTY BOROUGH COUNCIL MERTHYR TUDFUL FULL COUNCIL MEETING 12 th December 2006 Dear Sir/Madam You are hereby summoned to attend a Meeting of the Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council to be held at the COUNCIL CHAMBER on Tuesday, 19th December, 2006 at 5.00 pm being a Meeting for the following purposes. 1. Apologies 2. Declarations of Interest 3. Planning Application 060218 – Proposed Mixed Use Development Comprising Retail Units With Cinema Above - Land at Junction of Castle Street/Avenue De Clichy, Central Area - Diageo Pension Trust Ltd c/o Savills Commercial To consider a further report from the Deputy Chief (Pages 1 - Executive and Director of Customer Corporate 92) Services. 4. To deal with any other urgent business or correspondence 5. To receive communications from His Worship the Mayor By order of the Mayor ALISTAIR NEILL CHIEF EXECUTIVE 1 - 1 This page is intentionally left blank Agenda Item 3 MERTHYR TYDFIL COUNTY BOROUGH COUNCIL DATE WRITTEN 13 th December 2006 REPORT AUTHOR A N Davies/E Foley/G Morgan HEADS OF SERVICE A N Davies and E Foley COMMITTEE Special Council COMMITTEE DATE 19 th December 2006 TO: Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen PLANNING APPLICATION 060218 – PROPOSED MIXED USE DEVELOPMENT COMPRISING RETAIL UNITS WITH CINEMA ABOVE. LAND AT JUNCTION OF CASTLE STREET/AVENUE DE CLICHY, CENTRAL AREA DIAGEO PENSION TRUST LTD C/O SAVILLS COMMERCIAL PURPOSE OF REPORT: This supplementary report has been prepared for Council to further consider Application No. 060218 and seeks to address the issues raised at Special Council on 1 st November 2006 with regard to car parking usage, potential highway safety issues and additional on street parking in and around the town centre generated by the proposed development, the subject of Application No. 060218. 1.0 INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND 1.1 On 27 th September 2006, a report was presented to the Council’s Planning & Regulatory Committee with regard to Application No. 060218 ( Appendix 1 refers). The report recommended conditional approval, subject to the proviso that a decision letter would not be issued until or unless the positive written comments of the Environment Agency Planning Liaison were received. This recommendation was not accepted. Committee instead resolved to defer determination to a meeting of Full Council. 1.2 At Full Council on 18 th October 2006, Councillors were presented with a minor supplementary report ( Appendix 2 ). Councillors were advised that, in a letter dated 17 th October, confirmation had been received from the Environment Agency that the revised Flooding Consequences Assessment submitted by the applicants was acceptable. The Agency suggested the addition of a further six planning conditions to be appended to any decision letter, in the event that planning consent was granted. Council resolved to defer the matter to a Special Council. On 19 th October, for Council’s further information, copies of the Environment Agency’s letter dated 17 th October, with suggested conditions, was circulated to all Councillors. Page 1 1.3 At Special Council on 1 st November a minor supplementary report was submitted advising Councillors of additional planning conditions (Nos. 17-21) suggested by the Environment Agency, and a further condition (No. 22) recommended by the Head of Planning. The recommendation to Special Council was to grant consent, subject to the additional conditions specified, together with those originally suggested to Committee on 27 th September. ( Appendix 3 ). This recommendation was not accepted by Special Council. Instead it was resolved: In view of the serious discrepancies that Councillors have identified in the Head of Planning’s report to the Council, particularly within the section dealing with Car Parking Usage, that further consideration of the said Planning Application be deferred until such time that a more comprehensive report has been prepared for consideration by elected Councillors. In view of the serious concerns expressed by Councillors over the failure of officers to consider and advise elected Councillors of any potential highway safety issues associated with members of the public walking to the proposed cinema from the appropriate public car parks (and vice-versa) that a comprehensive report be prepared that gives due consideration to possible highway safety implications associated with the proposed cinema. In view of the serious concerns expressed by Councillors that the proposed cinema could generate additional on-street parking in and around the town centre that a comprehensive report be prepared to address this issue. Accordingly, Council required the preparation of a further report for consideration, which is now set out below. 2.0 CURRENT POSITION WITH REGARD TO THE PROPOSED DEVELOPMENT 2.1 On 7 th November 2006 the applicants submitted an Appeal against the failure of Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council as Local Planning Authority to determine Planning Application No. 060218 within the appropriate (8 week) period. The Appeal is due to be considered by means of a Local Hearing at the Civic Centre on Tuesday 27 th February 2007. In view of this, should the Council wish to appear at the Hearing then it is required to submit a statement indicating its desire to do so setting out its case by the 21 st December 2006. 2.2 On 13 th November 2006, the applicants submitted a fresh planning application which was identical to that considered by Planning & Regulatory Committee and the subsequent Council meetings cited above. In a letter which accompanied this latest planning application, the applicants’ agents stated that the purpose of the fresh planning application submission was: “… In order to keep negotiations with your Council open and to ensure that your Council retains the opportunity to determine the planning application.” The fresh planning application (No.060606) was accompanied by the same supporting documents as those which accompanied App. No. 060218, (as amended Page 2 between April and July 2006). In addition the application is accompanied by a document entitled “Supplementary Statement on Car Parking and Traffic” , which the agents state is designed “… to address the issues raised at the 1 st November Full Council meeting.” In view of the fact that the Supplementary Statement attempts to address those concerns expressed by Council in relation to App. No. 060218, this report is considered material to the consideration of that application. It is therefore appended for Council’s consideration, along with the original Car Parking Assessment submitted by Arup in April 2006 ( Appendices 4 and 5) . 3.0 PARKING AND TRAFFIC – REVISED ASSESSMENT IN LIGHT OF CONCERNS EXPRESSED BY COUNCIL ON 1 ST NOVEMBER 2006 WITH REGARD TO SECTION 8.7 OF THE REPORT OF THE HEAD OF PLANNING This section now supplements and re-evaluates Section 8.7 of the original report and reflects the professional views of the Head of Engineering. 3.1.1 Revised Car Parking Demand Assessment The original evaluation of the Car Parking Assessment submitted by the applicant, and which formed the basis of comments in the report to Council on November 1st was carried out using a series of on site surveys undertaken “in house” by Engineering staff in the Castle Car Park and College Car Parks complex. The latter term includes College (East), College (South) and College Extension. For avoidance of doubt and clarity the Head of Engineering would point out that the Car Parking Assessment submitted by the applicant was based on a single “snapshot” walkover survey of capacity in the main car parks between 11am and 12.30pm on Friday, March 31 st supplemented by a more detailed monitored survey in the College (East) Car Park on April 4 th . The latter survey extended over the period 4pm – 10pm. Details of these surveys may be seen in Section 3.2 of the Assessment ( at Appendix 5 ). The original “in house” surveys carried out by Engineering staff were used extensively in the evaluation and they may be found at Appendix 6 , setting out available spaces/capacity at the times listed. These surveys extended over approximately six months and were undertaken on a variety of days with particular emphasis on Tuesdays, identified as the weekday of peak demand. In terms of daily timing, surveys commenced at approximately 10am and concluded at approximately 4pm. These times represented the commencement of ‘demand’ for parking generated by the proposed development as established from the Parking Assessment, along with the time (4pm) at which the Assessment suggested that vacancies across the car parks were growing due to the departure of other users. The table in Appendix 6 lists available vacant spaces in the various car parks at the recorded times. This table of results was used to evaluate the survey undertaken by Messrs Arup & Partners on behalf of the applicants on Friday, Page 3 March 31 st . A physical series of on site observations was chosen as the best true measure of available capacity thus eliminating considerations of theoretical capacities and estimates of percentage occupancy. At this point Councillors may care to note that due to the potential for inaccuracy in any theoretical analysis of ticket data as part of the earlier (pre November 1 st ) evaluation of the Car Parking Assessment, no measurable weight was given to the use of ticket data in the Assessment submitted by the applicant. The data was supplied at the applicants’ request but given such factors as fee avoidance, transferability of tickets between car parks and other variables, the vacancy surveys were seen to be the most reliable true indicator of capacity. As a result of observations and comments made at the meeting on November 1 st , a fresh series of surveys was commissioned in mid November, targeted at (1) the commencement of demand (2), the release of spaces in late afternoon and (3)a specific series of observations centred on the 12.00 noon to 1.00pm lunchtime peak period.